Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer of the early nineteenth century, known for macabre tales like "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Fall of the House of Usher," and for poems like "The Raven." He pioneered the modern detective story with "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." His life was marked by poverty, alcoholism, and early death at forty.
Poe remains a touchstone for gothic horror and psychological terror in literature.
Disturbing, death-obsessed
- grotesqueDistorted, bizarre figure
- hauntingDisturbingly unforgettable
- eerieDisturbingly strange
- morbidUnhealthily drawn to darkness
melancholy · brooding · dread · foreboding · ominous · spectral · sepulchral · chilling
Metered poetic passage
- refrainAbstain from acting
- rhymeMatching terminal sounds
- meterDevice that measures usage
- stanzaPoem's line grouping
Nevermore · Lenore · The Raven · Annabel Lee · musicality · repetition · melancholy · rhythm
Cessation of life
- lossBeing without something
- griefIntense sorrow from loss
- madnessMental derangement or folly
- obsessionPersistent, intrusive preoccupation
guilt · revenge · beauty · mourning · beloved · mortality · despair · isolation
Brief prose fiction
- horrorExtreme fear or disgust
- suspenseAnxious uncertainty about outcomes
- terrorExtreme, overwhelming fear
- unreliable narratorStoryteller whose credibility wavers
madness · confession · revenge · guilt · obsession · twist ending · psychological
Something unexplained or unknown
- ratiocinationLogical reasoning process
- clueSolving aid
- deductionConclusion from premises
- cipherHidden writing system
cryptogram · puzzle · investigation · sleuth · whodunit · analytical · logic · crime
Creator of texts
- poetWriter of verse
- criticOne who judges merit
- editorOne who revises text
- storytellerOne who recounts tales
American author · journalist · essayist · reviewer · cryptographer · lecturer · wordsmith · penman
Major Maryland seaport
- orphanChild whose parents died
- povertySevere lack of resources
- alcoholismAddiction to drinking
- tragedyDisastrous or sorrowful event
West Point · Richmond · Boston · foster family · tuberculosis · Griswold · magazine editor
macabre
Disturbing, death-obsessed
morbid · melancholy · brooding · dread · foreboding · ominous · spectral · sepulchral · chilling · sinister
verse
Metered poetic passage
stanza · Nevermore · Lenore · The Raven · Annabel Lee · musicality · repetition · melancholy · rhythm · cadence
death
Cessation of life
obsession · guilt · revenge · beauty · mourning · beloved · mortality · despair · isolation · paranoia
short story
Brief prose fiction
- horrorExtreme fear or disgust
- suspenseAnxious uncertainty about outcomes
- terrorExtreme, overwhelming fear
unreliable narrator · madness · confession · revenge · guilt · obsession · twist ending · psychological
mystery
Something unexplained or unknown
- ratiocinationLogical reasoning process
- clueSolving aid
- deductionConclusion from premises
cipher · cryptogram · puzzle · investigation · sleuth · whodunit · analytical · logic · crime · solution
writer
Creator of texts
storyteller · American author · journalist · essayist · reviewer · cryptographer · lecturer · wordsmith · penman
Baltimore
Major Maryland seaport
- orphanChild whose parents died
- povertySevere lack of resources
- alcoholismAddiction to drinking
tragedy · West Point · Richmond · Boston · foster family · tuberculosis · Griswold · magazine editor
- literaturebooks, book, fiction, poetry, stories
- AuthorsShakespeare, William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald
- NovelistsStephen King, Agatha Christie, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen
- Genre AuthorsStephen King, Agatha Christie, Isaac Asimov, J.R.R. Tolkien, Arthur C. Clarke
- Horror WritersStephen King, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, Shirley Jackson, Anne Rice
- American LiteratureThe Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Scarlet Letter, Moby-Dick, Moby Dick
Edgar Allan PoeRalph Waldo Emerson
Louisa May Alcott · Walt Whitman · Washington Irving · Henry David Thoreau · Horatio Alger